Walmart’s Project Impact: Focusing on Customer Experience

I just read an article entitled, Walmart’s Project Impact: A Move to Crush Competition by Sean Gregory.

Walmart is beginning a new strategy to increase positive customer experience in their stores. An exerpt from the article is below:

So what does a Project Impact store look like? One recent weekday afternoon I toured a brand new, 210,000-sq.-ft. Walmart in West Deptford, N.J., with Lance De La Rosa, the company’s Northeast general manager. “We’ve listened to our customers, and they want an easier shopping experience,” says De La Rosa. “We’ve brightened up the stores and opened things up to make it more navigable.” One of the most noticeable changes is that Project Impact stores reshape Action Alley, the aisles where promotional items were pulled off the shelves and prominently displayed for shoppers. Those stacks both crowded the aisles and cut off sight lines. Now, the aisles are all clear, and you can see most sections of the store from any vantage point. For example, standing on the corner intersection of the auto-care and crafts areas, you can look straight ahead and see where shoes, pet care, groceries, the pharmacy and other areas are located. And the discount price tags are still at eye level, so the value message doesn’t get lost. 

“They are like roads,” De La Rosa says proudly. “And look around, the customers are using them. We’ve already gotten feedback about the wider, more breathable aisles. Our shoppers love them.”

Read the full article here.

Lesson to retailers: Your actual products and prices are only a slice of the pie! Your customers want an experience from you! What experience are you giving them? Ask for customer feedback and be sure your experience is matching your other marketing messages.

Tight Marketing Budget? Inexpensive Marketing Tips for Retail, Restaurants, and Entertainment Businesses

It seems that businesses are cutting back as much as they can. Unfortunately, this often means that marketing and advertising budgets take a back seat. This is one of the worst things to do! Remaining consistent with your advertising while others are cutting back and disappearing results in gaining market share and more customers!

However, we all realize that sometimes budget cuts are inevitable. Here are some marketing tricks and hints that will help your business boost marketing effectiveness, even when money is tight.

• Begin Employing a Social Media Strategy: If you haven’t heard about the massive power and impact social media marketing holds for your business, you may need to check your pulse! Social media presents the perfect avenue for customer conversation and interaction! Get your customers and potential customers involved, talk to them, and ask for feedback. There are SO many ways social media can be used to benefit your business. Just a few of them include:

• Build relationships with loyal customers
• Communicate, communicate, communicate!
• Drive traffic to your blog and website
• Market your brand and your business
• Share your expertise
• Answer questions/ ask questions
• Stay current with the latest industry trends
• Search engine optimization
• Avenue for promotions

Confused about getting started? These entries may also be helpful for you to check out:

A Social Media Strategy Is a Must

Twitter for Business

• Get Creative – Use Guerrilla Marketing Techniques: Guerrilla marketing encompasses a vast category of methods, but at the core I like to explain it as “marketing with an added value.” This may be entertainment, information, or just making someone feel good! For example, guerrilla marketing could be sending out a quarterly or monthly newsletter. The newsletter must contain valuable information (i.e. preview of new products, tips and advice). Another example could be using unusual, attention-getting media, like sidewalk displays. Yet another example would be to record your customer’s birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions and send them a special note from your business. The possibilities are endless! Guerrilla marketing requires more creativity, but works wonderfully for those on a tight marketing budget.

• In-Store Marketing: A sometimes ignored method, in-store marketing is extremely important in turning the people coming through your door into loyal, long-term and repeat customers. There are a variety of inexpensive methods that can take your business to new levels in the mind’s of your customers.

• Offer your customers complimentary coffee
• Collect names for a drawing or contest
• Offer a gift with purchase
• Create a loyalty program

These are just some of the ways you can inexpensively market in your store and turn customers into fans!

Have other “Marketing on a Tight Budget” Tips? I would love to hear them! Please share below.

5 Ways to Create a Positive Customer Experience

When you think of your marketing, do not stop at your outside advertising and promotions. Although these things are very important, in your marketing efforts remember to also take into account some other simple things that can yield great results.

Here are 5 ways your business can begin creating a more positive and memorable customer experience. The bonus:  these things are relatively free to execute!

1. Fragrance: The sense of smell is a huge memory trigger. If your store has a signature fragrance, it will remain in their minds. This can be as simple as lighting a candle or burning fragrance oil. Vary the scent toward the mood you want to create. (i.e. sultry, clean, lively, or understated)
2. Music: Music can change a mood faster than anything! Make sure the music you are playing is reflecting the type of emotions you want your customers to feel while in your store and remain true to your brand image.
3. Samples: Sampling will allow your customer to imagine what it would be like to own your product. Encourage your customers to try on clothes or jewelry, sample the perfume, or have a taste of a new dessert.
4. Greet your customers: No one wants to be bombarded by a sales person when they walk through the door, but being met with a warm, cheerful smile and greeting can do wonders to set the tone! I have walked into stores countless times and have been met with a disgruntled employee. Despite the merchandise, the mood has already been set.
5. Gain a piece of information about your customers: Ask your customers what their names are and learn them! Ask any number of questions (without being over-bearing and annoying, of course)…Are they local? Have they been in the store before? Are they shopping for something special? Make mental notes of each piece of information you gather to remember next time they come in. It will make your customers feel so special when you remember them next time.

Feel free to add your tips and suggestions of other ways businesses can create a positive customer experience.